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Moby's Wait For Me Seeks Melancholic Directions

A beautiful album marred by weak compositions; slow pace.

Moby

Wait For Me

Released on Jun 30, 2009

It might be safe to say that the easiest way to break into Moby’s broad catalogue is to pick a single - and he’s got quite a few - and then devour the album from which it stems. The strength of his singles for one, tended to overpower the overall effect of the albums because they represented the album’s climax (really how are you supposed to follow up a song like “Porcelain” or “Extreme Ways?”). With Wait for Me, Moby has put together one of his most consistent and beautiful albums to date. The current single off the album, “Shot in the Back of the Head,” thankfully, does not create unnecessarily high expectations for the rest of the album but, rather fits in perfectly with the ambience that Moby has created.  

The only issue is that the album as a whole becomes a rather draining and tiring affair. Midway through the album you start to get the feeling that Moby’s bag of tricks has started to run out and the real weakness of the album reveals itself - the compositions don’t have enough flair, tension, or dynamic to warrant repeated listens. To further that point, it almost seems as if the release of the album came at a wrong time. Wait for Me screams to be released during the winter months when night tends to overstay its welcome and all the moodiness is justified. But since summer is pretty much almost here (or for Chicago’s sake, will be here in about another month), the album doesn’t sit well with the season. The album could also benefit from a little fat trimming as well. Some of the songs here overstay their welcome - such as the low-key but jazzy “Study War” which should have clocked in at half it’s time.  

The second half of the album is permeated with quieter, experimental moments but tend to just drag out the melancholy that has made it’s presence known since the start of the album. “Slow Light” musically communicates its name - it’s a slow burner of a song but eventually coalesces into a synth-layered explosion that feels oddly familiar. Album closer “Isolate” could have been a beautiful way to end the album with it’s simple guitar and piano progressions but it also swells into a string arrangement. It seems unnecessary and the album could have benefitted greatly from the stripped down arrangement that start the track.

What’s most interesting about Wait for Me is Moby’s insistence on creating an album that exists (or tries to exist) outside of market expectations. While it’s a noble cause to create music that is untainted from the expectations of record label execs or what your fans are expecting to hear, I would be hard pressed to believe that this album isn’t somehow influenced by these expectations. At this point in his career, if Moby has been creating music based on what’s expected from him then I believe that influence would have already worked itself into Moby’s sound. And especially after listening to Wait for Me - it’s unmistakably the work of Moby - his unique aesthetic is there but, in no way does it signify a break from what we would expect from him.  More artists owe it to themselves to work in this manner and it would be hard not to imagine that if Moby were to continue to work like this that some of his finest work could lay ahead.

Posted by Danny Lopez on Jun 11, 2009 @ 6:00 am